[LATIMES] Try to imagine, then, a situation in which Trump commanded our military to do something stupid, illegal or irrational. Something so dangerous that it put the lives of Americans and the security of the country at stake. (Trump’s former rival for the Republican presidential nomination, Marco Rubio, said the United States could not trust "the nuclear codes" to an "erratic individual.") Faced with opposition from his military brass, Trump would perhaps reconsider and back down. But what if he didn’t?Blimpish swagger might fly within the patriarchal confines of a family business...or a dictatorship. It does not work, however, in a liberal democracy.
In that case, our military men and women, who swear to uphold the Constitution and a civilian chain of command, would be forced to choose between obeying the law and serving the wishes of someone who has explicitly expressed his utter lack of respect for it.
They might well choose the former.
"I would be incredibly concerned if a President Trump governed in a way that was consistent with the language that candidate Trump expressed during the campaign," retired Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, who served as head of the CIA and the National Security Agency under President George W. Bush, said in response to Trump’s autocratic ruminations. Asked by TV host Bill Maher
| ...whose eponymous show brings in 1.76 million viewers for HBO, all of whom fancy themselves intellectuals... |
I can imagine absolutely no situation in which the U.S. military would be involved in a coup. Nor have I seen any instance where Trump as expressed any disrespect for the military. Should President Trump propose something stoopid off the top of his head, the idea would be discussed and dismissed in a staff meeting. The Donald isn't Captain Zero. No one on his staff is going to pronounce him "ready to rule from day one."
It's virtually impossible to stage a coup in this country. Not only would the military not obey such orders, but we have hundreds of TV stations, thousands of radio stations, the internet, Twitter, social media, and cell phones. Notice how quickly Yippie spoke to his supporters in Turkey using FaceTime? That times a thousand here. Plus we have an evenly divided country of 315 million people. Stage a coup and you're guaranteed to cheese off half of them at a minimum.
A coup simply is not possible. Succession, however...
